Kogi Assembly Guts Fire amid Obajana Cement Ownership Tussle
The Kogi House of Assembly has been gutted by fire in the early hours of Monday, the development that happens after the state ownership tussle with Dangote Cement.
The state governor, Yahaya Bello, in parley with the lawmaker accuse Dangote Industries Limited for making no payment for the acquisition of Obajana Cement from the state in 2002.
Obajana is material asset to the very existence and strategic position of Dangote Cement Plc, a company with about N4.2 trillion valuation on the Nigerian Exchange.
Despite tussle over assets ownership which Dangote purported to have acquired from the government in 2002, share price traded steady over the last seven days at N245.
The Kogi State Government, on Thursday, presented to the public, the report of the Specialised Technical Committee on the Evaluation of the Legality of the Alleged Acquisition of Obajana Cement Company Plc by Dangote Cement Company Limited.
The detailed report, submitted to Governor Yahaya Bello, last month, was presented to the public by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. (Mrs) Folashade Ayoade.
On Monday, Security personnel watching over the complex told the speaker of the house who visited the scene “all we saw was heavy smoke coming out of the complex this morning.”
“By the time we rushed to see what exactly was the problem, the entire assembly was already on fire with everything inside burnt down.
“We then raised an alarm as we shout for help even though the complex is in a lonely place with neighbors far away”.
The guards said that the cause of the fire incident remained a mystery to them as they didn’t see the person or persons that set the complex ablaze.
The area most affected by the fire is the assembly gallery, which was completely burnt to ashes. READ:Kogi Poly expels 25 students for examination malpractices
The speaker of the House, Mr Mathew Kolawole, who spoke to journalists at the assembly complex, expressed shock over the incident. Kolawale described the incident as “very unfortunate”.
“I’m assuring you that this attack on our complex will not stop the house from performing its duty. We shall dig into its root until the truth is revealed,” he affirmed.
The speaker, however, said that the house would allow security agencies to investigate the fire incident to ascertain the root cause and level of damage. Obajana Plant in Kogi State contributes 16.3Mta capacity across its four lines.
# Kogi Assembly Guts Fire amid Obajana Cement Ownership Tussle#
